I had a manager that asked me to put summaries at the top of my emails. It was super effective.
I also label sections as to who they target (ex, when something is a technical explanation that not everyone needs) and add footnotes (with raw data and the like) when it's appropriate.
I'm a serial long-emailer, but I've learned how to interact with normal society ;)
Oh, I get more work done when I work from home; but worse, I also work longer hours. It's lose-lose.
On the topic of emails, if they're long, I try to structure them a bit like newspaper articles. Start with an executive summary, then say the same thing again with a bit more detail, and then say it a third time with data, if possible / necessary.
Re:Let employees work from home
by poslathian on Friday May 19, 2017 @10:20AM
(#14375871)
This is good advice, thanks!
This resonates very strongly with me. A "wfh" day for me means I get half as much done. My home is where I keep all my distractions!
> You can put together a logical argument, a coherent or strawman proposal, and discuss things at length point by point. It's much higher bandwidth. But too few people read long emails
My trick for this: I write the email, then I go back to the to start and write a 3-4 sentence summary of the rest of it. Often doing that leads me to delete the rest of the email entirely. Always check: are you writing at length to help someone else, or just to clarify your own thoughts?